


De Manu Mortis (The Hand of Death)

by Crexendo



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Alternate Universe, Faint Greek/Roman Elements, Multi, Prophecy, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-28
Updated: 2013-09-03
Packaged: 2017-12-24 21:16:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/944744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crexendo/pseuds/Crexendo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Our Prince of Persona, Minato . . . would he ever wake to the land of the living again?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue - Ante Tempestatem (Before the Storm)

In this world, there is a secret hour that only a few select humans can experience. It’s commonly known as ‘the Dark Hour’, and it occurs every night at the stroke of midnight. Normal humans transmogrify into black coffins and they remain blissfully unaware and unaffected by the dangers of the Dark Hour. However, there are people, people like us, who remain in human form during this forbidden time. Our mission, more or less, it to protect those people who experience the Dark Hour, because they often can’t protect themselves from the monsters that are let loose during this time.

Shadows. We don’t know how they came into existence, or what they really are, we just know that they pray on humans and that they only appear in during the Dark Hour. The only way to defend yourself against a Shadow is by using a power born in the hearts, souls, and minds of those who have the potential to give birth to this power. It’s called Persona.

A Persona, simply put, is a spirit we summon and use to combat Shadows. They can come in many different shapes and sizes, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, powers and abilities, and each one was a reflection of the person wielding it.

People knew that anything unexplainable that happened, and some accidents, was due to things Shadows had done during the Dark Hour, and they came to us, to our temple, to ask our help. Our temple was simply called the Temple of Persona. The populous knew exactly where we were, they knew what we did, what we were capable of, and for the most part, they alternately feared and respected us, and paid us a monthly tribute for protecting their towns.

There weren’t many of us Persona users, just a handful of young teens, as it always seemed that Personas only awoke in young people. There were four boys who had the power of Persona that lived in the temple, five if you included our bizarre Persona wielding hound, Koromaru. Their names were Sanada Akihiko, Iori Junpei, Amada Ken, and Aragaki Shinjiro. Alternately, there was also four girls; Yamagishi Fuuka, Takeba Yukari, a mysterious girl called Aigis, and myself, Kirijo Mitsuru. It was just us, a bunch of kids living in the temple for a long time . . . .

And then, we discovered a set of twins, a boy and a girl, both sixteen years of age. Arisato Minato and Minako were unlike any Persona users we’d ever come across before. They had the power to hold not only multiple, but a nearly limitless number of Personas at any given time. Most of us could only gain a new Persona through a drastic change of convictions or heart, but this brother and sister could switch between Personas at will. They could hold ancient Personas, like the ones depicted in the Compendium, and those that decorated the temple walls.

That was even before we found out that Minako was a prophetess who had cryptic visions of the future, and that Minato was capable of summoning our great god, Messiah, the creator of Personas and the one who granted humans the ability to use their power.

The caretakers of the temple, all of whom were people who could experience the Dark Hour, who served and followed us Persona users, quickly took up the habit of calling them Minato-denka and Minako-hime. The Prince and Princess of Persona, and soon enough, even we who had the power were calling them that. They became the leaders of the Temple of Persona before anyone noticed, and even when people did, no one really cared, as they did an excellent job doing it.

It was impossible not to be utterly enchanted by the Arisato twins. 

Minako was bright and lively, beautiful and passionate with soft brown hair and brilliant crimson eyes. Akihiko and Shinjiro were enthralled by her, but Minako made it clear that she preferred Shinjiro, but Akihiko didn’t seem to mind all that much. I think even Junpei was attracted to her for a time, until he met a new Persona user from a distant land. Ken, too, seems to idolize her. I respect her, and her abilities. She has yet to lead us astray.

Minato was soft spoken, polite, intelligent and reserved. Where Minako was impulsive and outgoing, Minato was calm and collected. At times, he almost seemed distant, gazing at the world through clear dark silver eyes from underneath strands of cobalt blue hair, quiet and slightly detached. He was beautiful, in his own way, and much like the males all fell for Arisato Minako’s charms, the girls, myself included, became enthralled by Arisato Minato. But unlike his sister, Minato did not show a particular interest in a single girl. He was kind and gentlemanly to everyone, but favored no one girl over the others, except for his sister.

For a time, everything was peaceful, but, predictably, it did not last.

Two years ago, around a year after Minako and Minato arrived at the temple, a dark goddess descended upon the Earth, and our Prince of the many masks, Arisato Minato, rose up to face her alone. Minako had predicted Nyx’s coming, had said that no matter what we did, only Minato could fight her. So, as his sister said, Minato fought the Mother of Shadows, a being supposedly eternal and impossible to defeat, on his own.

And won.

But at a terrible price.


	2. Perpetua Dormitabis (Unbroken Slumber)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An altercation between Akihiko and Mitsuru about what is, and what might or might not be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's short. The story itself isn't that long, it's just too long to be one big thing, in my opinion. But here's the next part! Please enjoy!

“Our radiant Prince . . . . Will you ever awaken . . . ?”

“You’re here again, Mitsuru?” a voice called from the ornate doorway behind her.

The maroon-haired girl turned her dark gaze towards where the tall, slender, silver-haired young man stood watching her, his arms folded over his red robe clad chest, his own gaze slightly exasperated, slightly annoyed. “He’s not going to wake up.”

Mitsuru frowned, “We don’t know that for certain, Akihiko.” She retorted firmly.

Akihiko pushed himself off the wall he’d been leaning against to stride deeper into their Prince’s bedchamber. “Minako-hime said he wouldn’t awaken until Death came to claim him. When has she ever been wrong before?” he asked sharply.

Mitsuru let her eyes drift back towards the pale, beautiful form of their blue haired prince, Arisato Minato, lying motionless amid the white silk sheets covering the bed. “There’s a first time for everything . . . .” she whispered, almost defiantly.

Akihiko sighed. “Mitsuru, it’s been more than two years since Minato fought Nyx. Two years he’s been here, more or less frozen in time, dead to the world, and virtually dead in reality. Even Minako-hime, his own twin sister, with all her power, couldn’t do anything to make him wake up. It’s not good for you to be so hung up on him like this.”

Mitsuru scowled, casting a fiery glare at the silver-haired boy, “You would be in the same position as me if it were Minako who was lying here right now . . . !” she hissed.

Akihiko’s gaze narrowed slightly. “Maybe I would be. And it would be you who would be telling me that it’s not healthy to obsess over being at her side every second, hanging on to a threadbare hope that maybe, just maybe, she’ll wake up. Even though I’ve been told otherwise by the prophet whose predictions are never wrong . . . .”

“I refuse to believe that Minato is gone. As long as his body still has warmth, as long as he breaths, no matter how faintly, I will not give up on the hope that he’ll awaken. After all that’s happened . . . I just can’t abandon him like that . . . .” the stalwart young woman shot back in a tone just short of desperation.

“Mitsuru,” Akihiko said in a steely tone, “you’re not the only one suffering here! We all want Minato to wake up! Minako-hime has been praying every day at Messiah’s shrine that her prediction will be wrong. She’s a mess, Mitsuru, but you’re too self-absorbed to see it. Yukari and Fuuka don’t smile like they used to. Junpei doesn’t tease anyone these days, and Aigis hardly ever says a word anymore. Even Shinji wants him to come back, because then Minako-hime will start acting like herself again. I . . . Minato was one of my best friends, as well as my prince. Do you really think we’ve all forsaken him?!”

The dark red-haired girl looked slightly stricken, and she stumbled over her answer, “No, I . . . I . . . .”

“We want him to come back to us just as much as you do, but the difference between us and you, is that we know that life will go on whither Minato wakes up or not! There’s no point in sitting here, waiting for something that may or may not happen!”

Mitsuru opened her mouth to speak a rebuttal, but the sound of a new voice overpowered her own.

“Aki! Aki!” 

Akihiko turned sharply at the sound of the familiar voice, rough with panic and exertion, “Shinji?!”

Shinjiro appeared in the doorway of Minato’s room, breathing hard from running, and for a second he couldn’t say anything, but there was a bright gleam of alarm in his brown eyes.

“Aragaki, what is it?! What’s going on?!” Mitsuru asked, her previous melancholy forgotten for the moment, her ‘danger-mode’ having been activated by the plain distress in the other boy’s brown orbs. There wasn’t much that could shake Shinjiro, and everyone knew it, so this had to be important.

“Mi . . . Minako-hime . . . . Minako-hime, she . . . she had a vision . . . and then passed out . . . ! She won’t wake up!”

**Author's Note:**

> Well, if things are unclear, you can ask me about them in the comments. I tried to make it as descriptive and informative as possible, without actually giving anything away! I hope you liked it!


End file.
